LA Wildfires, Carter's State Funeral, Trump's Agenda

0:01Wildfires in Southern California reduced entire neighborhoods to ashes. The street behind us are what caught fire, so our backyard caught fire. Does the region have the resources to bring the ongoing disaster under control? I'm Stephen Skeep with Michelle Martin, and this is Up First from NPR News. President Biden delivers the eulogy today at funeral services for former President Jimmy Carter here in Washington, where even remembrances can carry political messages. They often reveal as much about the speaker as they do the person being honored and eulogized. their worldview, what they believe in, their values, their vision.

0:40How will the former president be remembered? And President-elect Trump met with Senate Republicans to help chart a course for his second term. Stay with us. We've got news you need to start your day.

0:56Support comes from our 2025 lead sponsor of Up First, Amazon Business. How can you free your team from time-consuming office tasks? Amazon Business empowers leaders to not only streamline purchasing, but better support their teams. Smart business buying tools enable buyers to find and purchase items fast so they can focus on strategy and growth. It's time to free up your teams and focus on your future. Learn more about the technology, insights, and support available at AmazonBusiness.com. This message comes from Rince, who knows that greatness takes time. So does laundry. So Rince will take your laundry and hand-deliver it to your door, expertly cleaned.

1:35And you can take the time pursuing your passions. Time once spent sorting and waiting, folding and cuing, now spent challenging and innovating and pushing your way to greatness. So pick up that Irish flute, or those calligraphy pens, or the daunting Beef Wellington recipe card, and leave the laundry to Rince. Rince. It's time to be great. Support for NPR and the following message come from GoodRx. Prescriptions keep getting pricier and more of a hassle to fill. It's like the Wild West getting prescription medication these days. Good thing GoodRx wrangles it for you. From telehealth to wellness tips to easy discounts of up to 80%, GoodRx is riding with you at every step.

2:16GoodRx is not insurance, but if you have insurance or Medicare, GoodRx may beat your copay. Save time and money on prescriptions at goodrx.com slash upfirst. Today, every school in Los Angeles is closed. It's one sign of the way that wildfires have affected the nation's second largest city. The fires have sometimes destroyed whole neighborhoods. They wrecked the homes of celebrities. Billy Crystal says he lost the house where he's lived with his wife since 1979. Several people are dead that we know of so far, and new fires appear as desert winds blow embers around the region. We're joined now by NPR's Adrian Florido in Los Angeles.

2:54Good morning, Adrian. Good morning, Michelle. Could you just give us an overview of the kind of destruction that these fires are causing? Well, a lot of the destruction so far is from the Pacific Palisades Fire, which is where one of the two biggest fires is burning. News choppers were able to fly over that affluent coastal community yesterday and filmed block after block of homes reduced to ash. Homes in nearby Malibu also burned. The Hollywood Hills caught fire last night, and that blaze has quickly spread, forcing chaotic evacuations there. I was able yesterday to get into a neighborhood ravaged by the other big fire, the Eaton Fire, in Altadena on the east side of Los Angeles.

3:32I walked past more than 20 homes burning or already burned to the ground, and that was over just a couple of blocks. I mean, it just sounds just like a horrific sort of scene there. Could you just, would you just describe more about what you saw? You know, well, the ruins of many of the houses in the neighborhood where I was were still burning. And every so often something under the rubble would explode or a wooden doorframe would finish collapsing. And it would shoot up this puff of embers. And it was windy, so neighbors were rushing to make sure that those embers didn't set their houses on fire.

4:03I met Brittany Mann as she and her brother were hosing down their roof and their lawns before evacuating. The street behind us are what caught fire. So our backyard caught fire. So we're still trying to get those fires out before we leave. And across the street, Michelle, I met Sarah Rudd. She evacuated on Tuesday night, but while she was gone, her neighbor, who had not evacuated, noticed that her house had caught fire, and she said that he grabbed his hose. Some of our neighbors who stayed back when they shouldn't have, they actually saved a lot of homes. Like our house right here, you can see where it's charred on the side, and he saved our house.

4:40When we spoke, she had just come back to check on her house. She was leaving again. But as we spoke, other houses were burning on her block. So hers was still at risk, and there were no firefighters around. Adrian, to that point, we've been hearing about how there just don't seem to be enough resources to fight all these fires. What can you tell us about that? Well, fire officials have said L.A. just doesn't have enough firefighters to tackle so many large fires at once. The ones who have been out there since Tuesday are exhausted. L.A.'s mayor, Karen Bass, says that more crews are coming in from other counties.

5:10and cities. Officials also said that some of the fire hydrants that firefighters were tapping into in the Pacific Palisades went dry on Tuesday. Winds that day had prevented aircraft from doing water drops, so hydrants were the only option and they couldn't take the strain. Janice Quiñones is LA's top water official. You're fighting a wildfire with a fire hydrant system. Fire hydrants are not made to fight multiple houses, hundreds of houses at a time. She said that officials are still working to fill the tanks and the reservoirs where water is needed. Adrian, do you have any sense of when these fires may be under control?

5:47No, not really, Michelle. There are several major fires burning across the region. Conditions are extremely dry, and it's the winds spreading these flames and making this also unpredictable. High winds are expected at least through tonight, so this emergency is not over. That is NPR's Adrian Florido in Los Angeles. Adrian, thank you. Thanks, Michelle.

6:17Today, all the living U.S. presidents will gather with hundreds of other dignitaries at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. for former President Jimmy Carter's state funeral. Carter lived to be 100, leaving a mark on this country and the world extending beyond his four years in the White House. Even as he traveled the world over the decades, he kept living in Plains, Georgia, a comparatively simple life. But presidential funerals are grandiose and Carter's will be no different. NPR senior White House correspondent Tamara Keith will be in the cathedral for the funeral. And she is with us now for a preview.

6:49Good morning, Tam. Good morning. So just start with telling us how history will remember Jimmy Carter. He was a one-term president and his time in Washington was marked by high energy prices, inflation and discontent, which really dragged down his presidency. There were foreign policy triumphs like the Camp David Accord, but also challenges like the Iran hostage crisis that only ended on Carter's last day in office. You know, he came into office in 1977 on a wave of post-Nixon backlash and demand for reform. He promised to never lie to the American people, but was punished for what became known as his malaise speech, where he perhaps shared a bit too much of what was on his mind.

7:32After leaving office, Carter wrote a whole new chapter of his legacy, 40 years of work fighting disease and homelessness and working for peace. And I'm certain this will get more than one mention at the service today, but Carter continued teaching Sunday school at the Baptist church he attended in Plains, Georgia, well into his 90s. As we said, all the living presidents will be there, which is not something that often happens. What will you be watching for? Well, you know, those dynamics of all the presidents sitting with their spouses in a single pew are always fascinating. President-elect Donald Trump will be there, as will President Biden, who he will replace in the Oval Office in less than two weeks.

8:13And the last presidential funeral was in 2018 for George H.W. Bush. Jimmy Carter was there for that one, along with the Obamas and Clintons. President Biden is set to speak at this service, and he and Carter go way back. Biden, then a young U.S. senator, was the first national political figure to endorse Carter back in 1976. I spoke to former Obama speechwriter Terry Zuplat about what he's watching for, and he said in Washington, even a eulogy is a political act. They often reveal as much about the speaker as they do the person being honored and eulogized, their worldview, what they believe in, their values, their vision.

8:56But he also said there's a risk in reading too much into these speeches. Not every glowing statement about Carter's character will be meant as an implicit criticism of some other president who's in the room. OK, so potential for some subtext there. But what else stands out to you from the list of speakers? You know, Carter was a political outsider, but he's getting the ultimate Washington insider sendoff. In addition to the eulogy from President Biden, there will be tributes from Carter's grandson, Jason Carter, and Stu Eisenstadt, who served in the Carter administration. One thing that is quite unique, thanks to Carter's incredible longevity, two eulogies will be read by the sons of the men who wrote them.

9:37Both former President Gerald Ford and former Vice President Walter Mondale wrote eulogies for Carter, but Carter outlived them both. One other fun thing, country stars Garth Brooks and Tricia Yearwood are set to sing Imagine by John Lennon. It was Carter's favorite song, and the lyrics are quite resonant with Carter's life's work. That is. And here's Tamara Keith. Tam, thank you. You're welcome. President-elect Donald Trump also visited Capitol Hill last night to pay his respects to former President Jimmy Carter. And he also met with Republicans to talk about strategizing for legislation. We're going to get something done that's going to be reducing taxes and creating a lot of jobs and all of the other things that you know about.

10:20But this was a really unified meeting. So he says, but is there a path ahead? So here to tell us all about this is NPR congressional correspondent Barbara. Barbara, good morning to you. Good morning. So, Barbara, he met with the senators, Republican senators. What were the senators hoping for in that meeting? Well, the goal was to decide on a strategy to advance Trump's agenda on border security and tax cuts. There's been a lot of questions about how Republicans, who will have unified government in two weeks, are going to accomplish those things. Trump said earlier that he wants, in his words, one big, beautiful bill for everything.

10:55And that's in line with what House Speaker Mike Johnson wants. But on the Senate side, there's interest in a two-bill approach, one that would tackle the border, the other on taxes. Now, both strategies would use a tool in the budget process to avoid a filibuster from Democrats in the Senate. But there was hope from many GOP lawmakers that Trump would put his thumb on the scale as to which option he wants to see implemented. Interesting. So that's what they wanted. Did they get it? No, not quite. It was a fairly long meeting, almost two hours. And those of us waiting outside the meeting heard lots of applause throughout.

11:28So a sign of good progress. And I'm told that people asked a good number of questions in the meeting. But bottom line, Trump came out and said he just isn't too concerned with process. We had a great meeting. There's great unity. Whether it's one bill or two bills, it's going to get done one way or the other. I think there's a lot of talk about two and there's a lot of talk about one, but it doesn't matter. The end result is the same. Senate Majority Leader John Thune spoke to reporters once Trump left and didn't commit to one particular path. We're all in line with getting the result. and the process arguments that we have around here, I think, are a lot less important, certainly to the people across the country than accomplishing the things I just mentioned.

12:12He called it an ongoing conversation. So what about that? Why does it matter if Trump signs off on a strategy? Well, I think there's a desire for Trump to have a strong preference early on, to be a kind of organizing force. It wasn't that long ago that he sort of threw a wrench in House Republicans' efforts to pass a continuing resolution to fund the government. He made demands at the last minute and members at the time told me like, gee, I wish he had told us this earlier. So it's not out of character for Trump to make demands at inconvenient moments for members. And that can really upend negotiations when lawmakers think that they're on the same page and forging ahead.

12:50And how they all act, the House, the Senate, and the White House, in the very early stages of the administration is going to be important. And it can set a tone for how they work together going forward. That is NPR congressional correspondent Barbara Sprint. Barbara, thank you. Thank you.

13:09And that's Up First for Thursday, January 9th. I'm Michelle Martin. And I'm Steve Inskey. If you can listen to this podcast sponsor-free while also financially supporting public media with Up First Plus, learn more at plus.npr.org. That's plus.npr.org. Why don't they just let you press the plus side? That doesn't matter. Anyway, go. Today's episode of Up First was edited by Gigi Dupin, Roberta Ramson, Kelsey Snell, Jenea Williams, and Alice Wolfley. It was produced by Zia Budge, Nia Dumas, and Lily Quiroz. We get engineering support from Robert Rodriguez and David Greenberg, and our technical director is Zach Coleman, and we hope you'll join us again tomorrow.

13:54This message comes from Michelin. More than its hire company, Michelin is an innovation company, now taking on space, developing an airless wheel for space exploration. Motion for life. More at MichelinMan.com slash Y hyphen Michelin slash innovation. This message comes from Mint Mobile. From the gas pump to the grocery store, inflation is everywhere. So Mint Mobile is offering premium wireless starting at just$15 a month. To get your new phone plan for just$15, go to mintmobile.com slash switch. This message comes from Warby Parker. What makes a great pair of glasses? At Warby Parker, it's all the invisible extras without the extra cost, like free adjustments for life.

14:40Find your pair at warbyparker.com or visit one of their hundreds of stores around the country.